Toshiba launches thin and light Portégé R700

Toshiba has spent the last 25 years refining the basic laptop design of flat screen, x86 processor, full-size keyboard and removable storage. Its Portégé R700 will continue that tradition when it goes on sale next quarter, but two other new portable computers Toshiba will release around the same time take the company in new directions.

1.3kg laptop finds room for optical drive

By
Oliver Garnham
| 21 Jun 2010

Toshiba has launched the Portégé R700 - a thin and light laptop due to go on sale next quarter.

Weighing just 1.3kg, the R700 has a tapered case, 25.7 mm at its thickest point, and room for an optical disc drive. It also features an eight-hour battery life, according to Thomas Teckentrup, Toshiba's general manager of product development and strategy.

Other Toshiba R700 specs include a 13.3-inch LED-backlit screen, a VGA webcam and a fingerprint reader, and Windows 7. Ports include HDMI and VGA for external displays, a docking port, Gigabit Ethernet, eSATA and three USB ports.

The R700 will be sold in different countries with different configurations, with Intel Core i3, i5 or i7 processors and up to 8GB of DDR3 DRAM. Other options will include 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1 wireless networking, a hard disk up to 500GB in capacity or a solid-state drive up to 512GB, and a built-in DVD-RW drive, either single- or double-layer.

The Portégé range is aimed at business users, but the same computer will also sell to consumers as the Satellite R630, minus the fingerprint reader and docking connector.

Teckentrup wouldn't name a price for the R700, saying it would vary by country and options chosen, but said it will be less than the R600 it replaces.